Here’s a concept most finance classes tiptoe around: a captive capital provider. Can a conglomerate successfully grow around its own capital-providing corporation? Or will internal capital ruin all NPV calculations? For GE Corp (ge.com), the answer is a big affirmative in favour of GE Capital (gecapital.com). Do you think this is a successful strategy to imitate by other conglomerates? Do you see parallels with the Main Bank system of financing within Japanese keiretsu firms?